Archive for April 27, 2017

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Wall

Trump is closing in on the 100 day mark with very little to show for it. Other than his placement of Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court (which has more to do with Turtle Boy Mitch McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans using the nuclear option), he’s done nothing more than bomb Syria and bomb Afghanistan and those were done mostly to distract people’s attention away from the investigation into his ties with Russia during the 2016 election and give boners to journalists like Brian Williams and Fareed Zakaria.

Well, there’s been a clamoring recently about what Trumpty Dumpty plans to do with his promised wall, which he promised would be a done deal by now. The truth is the wall isn’t needed, most people don’t want it and it would be a massive waste of taxpayers money, much like Trump’s repeated trips to his posh, opulent Florida resort, Mar-a-lago, so he can play golf. During the Obama administration, illegal immigration declined (1 million unauthorized immigrants returned to Mexico) and will continue to go down (illegal crossing down 40% in Trump’s first month) because the United States has the biggest, most dangerous doofus, outside of North Korea, in charge of the country. The only deterrent we need is plastering the Donald’s face on welcome billboards at the border with some of his delightful words of wisdom and nobody in their right mind would want to come into this country. Hell, we don’t even want to stay in this country with the orange rage monster at the helm. So we say, we don’t need no stinkin’ wall.

The United States has decided to implement a much more cost effective way of reducing illegal immigration and increasing emigration featuring Donald Trump welcoming people from Mexico with his words of wisdom.

Instead of building an unnecessary, expensive border wall, the United States has decided to implement a much more cost effective way of reducing illegal immigration and increasing emigration.

Rewind: Night At The Foxbury

Bill O’Reilly, the man whose only goal in life is to look out for you, recently got the axe from Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network because he’s finally harassed too many women in the workplace. It started several weeks ago when women came forward claiming sexual harassment from O’Reilly, who has a history of treating women rather shoddily. Who can forget his adventures with the loofah mitt and falafel back in 2004. Well, FINALLY, it has caught up with O’Reilly. Just like his former boss, Roger Ailes, the splotchy faced, self declared cultural warrior is out. Where will poor little Billy go now? The White House, as Trump’s new press secretary? We shudder and laugh at the thought.

This reminds us of a photo-toon we did back in 2007 which featured O’Reilly and , at that time, CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck (we think he’s a greeter at Walmart now), who made some rather unwelcome advances toward a female he was interviewing. Yes, we can just picture how a night out on the town with conservative super studs Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly might have gone. You can almost hear the strains of Haddaway’s What is Love in the background can’t you.

This is from our March 29, 2007 issue.

 Conservative Super Studs, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, have announced that they're going to make a new movie called A Night at the Foxbury, which is based on their wild, crazy, escapades wooing the opposite sex. This on the heels of Glenn Beck's recent incident where, while discussing the topic of the naked American Idol photos, he made the following suggestive comment to USA Today's Dina Sansing on CNN's Headline News: "Dina, I've got some time and a camera. Why don't you stop by?" But just like Ann Coulter, Beck was just joking, of course.


Conservative Super Studs, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, have announced that they’re going to make a new movie called A Night at the Foxbury, which is based on their wild, crazy, escapades wooing the opposite sex. This on the heels of Glenn Beck’s recent incident where, while discussing the topic of the naked American Idol photos, he made the following suggestive comment to USA Today’s Dina Sansing on CNN’s Headline News: “Dina, I’ve got some time and a camera. Why don’t you stop by?” But just like Ann Coulter, Beck was just joking, of course.

Phoenix March For Science

The March for Science happened on Earth Day, April 22nd, 2017 in cities across the globe. Tens of thousands of people showed up to give support to science, which is under attack in this country by the Trump administration and right wing zealots in the Republican party. Vital government programs face devastating budget cuts because the facts that scientists discover don’t match the narrow ideology of the people who control the Republicans; the oil, gas, coal, defense, finance and banking industries and the evangelical christians.

We here at the Bucket attended the satellite march in downtown Phoenix. According to the facebook page, about 3.3k people attended. Many scientists and science enthusiasts showed up to support logic, reason and the scientific method. Although it was billed as a not partisan event, almost all of the people there were ROYALLY PISSED at the Trump administration and the Republicans in general. There were many greats signs at the rally, too. Our favorite was one carried by a local lady, which featured a picture of Donald Trump next to the words – Does this ass make my country look small? Classic!

But despite the frustration and anger of the participants, it was a peaceful rally. It gave us some hope that maybe, just maybe something will be done about these charlatans, con artists and corporate lackeys who are running the government now. Like another sign said – So bad, introverts are here…yes, even the smart, intelligent, geeky, introverted scientists and engineers, the very foundation of this country, are willing to venture outside their comfort zones and socialize to try and put an end to this mess.

A small section of the marchers in the Phoenix March for Science on Earth Day, April 22, 2017 in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. BilgeBucket Gazette staff member, Chester Einstein, is the one in the hat carrying a sign.

A small section of the marchers in the Phoenix March for Science on Earth Day, April 22, 2017 in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. BilgeBucket Gazette staff member, Chester Einstein, is the one in the hat carrying a sign.

March For Science

We’ve stated on this site ad infinitum how anti-science the Republicans have become in the past twenty years. Donald Trump has even put a climate change denier as head of the EPA and his secretary of state is a former CEO of Exxon Mobil. They dispute any scientific evidence for climate change (and there’s a ton of it) while pushing hard for forwarding the agenda of the oil, gas and coal industries.

Well, this weekend is a chance to take a stand and tell the Trump and the Republicans to shape up. On Earth Day, April 22nd, there will be worldwide marches to promote Science. If you’re a fan of logic, reason and the scientific method, go to a march in your area. Science Rules!

March for Science, Earth Day, April 22nd, 2017.

March for Science, Earth Day, April 22nd, 2017.

Rich, Good: Poor, Bad

If you’ve had doubt about where the Republican priorities stand, Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz has clarified the GOP’s position quite clearly within the last couple weeks. Chaffetz, the smuggest congressman alive and the head of the House Oversight committee, recently conjectured that Donald Trump is rich already, therefore he cannot possibly be corrupt and looking into Trump’s conflicts of interest in connection with Russia is just a waste of time. And don’t even mention all the fraud with the Trump foundation. Chaffetz thinks nothing is wrong there despite Trump admitted to self-dealing. All Chaffetz wants to do is investigate Hillary Clinton.

So the rich aren’t corrupt, eh? Just let that sink in for a minute or so. There’s a whole laundry list of rich people who’ve committed white collar crimes. Just go back to the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and the Great Recession and the sub prime mortgage fiasco. Or how about the Enron scandal. Tons of greedy CEOs and corporate plutocrats who got off scot free with all the loot. Basically Chaffetz seems to be saying that only people who don’t have money could possibly be corrupt and that people who are rich are above silly laws and regulations. Plutocrats —> good; working poor —> bad.

Remember when Pussygate erupted, Chaffetz said he couldn’t possibly support Donald Trump. But Trump is president now, so Chaffetz is just going to look the other way as are all the other ‘ethical and moral’ Republicans. Chaffetz has shown such partisanship and lack of integrity as a congressman that he cannot be trusted to do his job and police his own party. Like The Atlantic said in their article, you might as well call his committee the House Overlook Committee. There are a lot of people angry at Chaffetz as evidence by his town hall meeting back in February. Maybe, just maybe, he and a ton of other Republicans will be ousted in 2018.

Smuggest congressman alive, Jason Chaffetz displays his faultless logic as head of the House Oversight Committee that plutocrats are saintly angels and poor people are corrupt vermin.

Smuggest congressman alive, Jason Chaffetz displays his faultless logic as head of the House Oversight Committee, that plutocrats are saintly angels and couldn’t possibly be corrupt.

 

The Perfidious Plot of Puritan Pence

Vice President and modern day Puritan, Mike Pence, recently grabbed headlines away from Donald Trump, which isn’t easy to do nowadays. First, Pence cast the deciding vote on a bill which paves the way for defunding Planned Parenthood. Donald Trump just signed it into law. Pence is a full fledged evangelical zealot, whose religious intentions seem to be taking America back to the seventeenth century. This bill is an affront to women everywhere, but that doesn’t seem to matter to conservative christian males, who still base their views of women on the antiquated views postulated in the bible. The picture of the people (all white males) who decided women’s healthcare, which has become viral, shows that these troglodytes view women as mere possessions, who should only do household chores, have babies and shut up.

The second incident has to do with an interview Pence did back in the 2002 where he stated that he would never have dinner alone with a woman who wasn’t his wife. While many in the corporate news media defended Pence, claiming how gallant and gentlemanly this is, we here at the Bucket tend to think otherwise. We haven’t come to our atheism and our aversion to evangelical christians without experience. This is blatantly about Pence not wanting to tempt himself, which the article linked to above, addresses. There are many christians who are so sexually repressed that they can’t even say the words vagina or penis without turning twenty shades of crimson and dying of embarrassment. In their minds, sex or anything having to do with sex should not be discussed and any kind of modern thinking on contraception and birth control is wrong.

What makes Pence so dangerous is that compared to Trump, he seems reasonable. He’s becoming normalized by the media and he’s anything but normal. He is a right wing, radical, christian zealot. If he has his way, women’s rights, will be turned back a generation…or more.  We wouldn’t be surprised if Puritan Pence resurrects public shaming of women who have had an abortion or may even want an abortion; akin to making Puritan women wear a scarlet letter on their frocks. Behind that genteel smile, is a perfidious plot to take away women’s rights and return them to the kitchen, barefoot, pregnant and silent.

Vice President and modern day Puritan, Mike Pence, who is boldly trying to return America to the 17th century, courageously turns down a dinner invitation from a foul temptress who has a scarlet letter A on her chest indicating that she had or was thinking about having an abortion.

Vice President and modern day Puritan, Mike Pence, who is boldly trying to return America to the 17th century, courageously turns down a dinner invitation from a foul temptress who may or may not have had an abortion.

 

Syria: Shock And Awe Redux

We were all ready to do a post on Vice President and modern day Puritan, Mike Pence, when BOOM…American CEO/Dictator decided to create a distraction to the investigations into Russians meddling on his behalf during the 2016 elections and bomb Syria. Officially, Trump proclaimed that he saw the images of children who were gassed by Syrian leader, Bashar Al-Assad, and at the urging of ‘heartbroken’ daughter Ivanka, had to do something. But of course, that sympathy doesn’t extend to letting Syrian women and children enter the United States as refugees. What’s more, he contacted the Russians before hand to tell them of his plans. The Syrian military knew about the attacks as well. By most accounts, the attacks did little damage to Syria and raises more questions that it answers. What’s interesting is that some Democrats, like Chuck Schumer, supported Trump’s move and Hillary Clinton suggested taking action a few hours before Trump did. But this certainly seems like a classic ‘wagging the dog’ moment.

But the most appalling development of this affair was the nauseating obsequiousness of the main stream corporate media as they fawned and practically had orgasms in praising Trump’s action. It reminded us of the ‘shock and awe’ bombing of Baghdad at the beginning of that clusterf*ck known as the Iraq War. We expected moderate GOP hawks such as John McCain and Lindsay Graham to be giddy about the bombings. But media pundits like Fareed Zakaria said Trump “Donald Trump became the President of the United States”. Brian Williams took the prize for the biggest ass kisser. We lost all respect for Williams way back in 2005 when he suggested that the government could pay journalists to promote a certain viewpoint. (Can you say unethical, boys and girls.) Then there was his admission that he made up some stories about the Iraq War back in 2015. Williams repugnantly called the bombings in Syria “beautiful pictures of fearsome armaments”. Good grief guys…get a room already. Why is Williams even on the air any more? He should be putting his talents to work where they belong: selling used cars.

But it worked, like it always does for Republicans. They create distractions and their buddies in the corporate media compliantly shift their focus and forget about previous criminal activities. Talk about short term attention spans. We’re having serious doubts now that anything will come of these investigations into Trump’s connection with Russia.

So basically, for future reference, in the coming years of the Trump administration; if things are going badly, just expect a bombing in a country in the Middle East and the media will lighten up and all will conveniently be forgotten.

Corporate media 'journalists' Brian Williams and Fareed Zakaria dutifully kiss the ass of American CEO/Dictator over his beautifully presidential bombings in Syria.

Corporate media ‘journalists’ Brian Williams and Fareed Zakaria dutifully kiss the ass of American CEO/Dictator over his beautifully presidential bombings in Syria.

Trump’s Lapdog In The Dog House

In a stunning reversal of fortune, California Republican representative Devin ‘Fido’ Nunes, recused himself as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the Trump administration’s ties with Russia during the 2016 election.

Nunes has received much criticism from Democrats and moderate Republicans for appearing to be CEO/Dictator Donald Trump’s lapdog. In the past couple of weeks, Fido has gone out of his way to make sure Donald Trump knew what was going on during the proceedings, which is a huge violation of House rules, federal law and ethics. But hey…when has that stopped the Republicans before. He is now under investigation for possibly disclosing classified information. Fido’s colleague, Rep. Ted Yoho, even said in defense of his friend, “Nunes is a man of high integrity and character”. Then he went on to say “You gotta keep in mind who he works for. He works for the president. He answers to the president.” No. No he doesn’t. Devin ‘Fido’ Nunes works for the constituents of the 22nd congressional district in California, not the President. He should put the people’s interest first since this is…you know…A DEMOCRACY.

Yep, Fido Nunes has been a good boy for his authoritarian master. We have no doubt he’ll be rewarded for his service like the good little lapdog he is.

American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump, lavishes praise upon his lapdog, Devin 'Fido' Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for breaking federal and ethical laws to keep him informed of anything bad the FBI is saying about him.

American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump, lavishes praise upon his lapdog, Devin ‘Fido’ Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for breaking federal and ethical laws to keep him informed of anything bad the FBI is saying about him.

Republican Crimes Against Nature

While the Republican Health Care Plan failure, Trump’s Russia connections and a multitude of other daily flak from Trump’s bumbling acolytes like Devin Nunes, Sean Spicer and Jared Kushner have taken center stage, the Republican’s war on the environment has commenced in the background and it doesn’t look good for nature, science and the general well being of every living thing on this planet.

Trump approved going ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline despite protests from native Americans and environmentalists citing that it will only exacerbate climate change. But of course, new EPA administrator and lawyer (non-scientist), Scott Pruitt, despite overwhelming scientific consensus by climate scientists and experts, says that climate change isn’t real. Basically, Pruitt is just a lackey for the fossil fuel industry and will anything to deceive the public about climate change. Therefore, the Keystone XL pipeline can commence and oil barons like Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, can reap the benefits.

Unfortunately, the environment and humans will suffer the horrible consequences. It turns out that the December oil spill of 530,000 gallons in North Dakota (the biggest in that state’s history) was three times larger than previously reported. This brings to light a couple of things. One, the oil spill barely got coverage from the corporate media because that would put the oil industry in a bad light and might hurt business. And two, the oil industry lied about the size of the spill because reporting the real size would put the oil industry in a bad light and might hurt business. Get the picture. The only thing that matters is business and profit. If there’s an oil leak, learn to love the taste of oil in your drinking water.

To illustrate how inept and corrupt the corporate media is about reporting anything bad about the oil industry, take a look at this website which reports oil and gas pipeline incidents from 2010 to the present. 3,300 incidents! That’s a hell of a lot of incidents! So why haven’t we the citizens heard about them in the news media?

The Republican’s war on science is nothing new. Read the books Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney and Crimes Against Nature by Robert Kennedy Jr., both released during the Bush Administration, and you’ll see that the GOP has repeatedly put short term profit of the coal, gas and oil industries (major contributors to the GOP coffers) above long term consequences for the environment. To illustrate this, CEO/Dictator Trump signed an executive order last week which rolls back more of Clean Power Plan Obama’s regulations and enabling the oil, gas and coal industries to pollute to their hearts content. According to the GOP’s spiel, they’re getting rid of job killing regulations. Big deal, so we can have jobs that kill people in the long run? Besides that the promise of jobs coming back is another con. According the article linked above, “rolling back the Clean Power Plan and other environmental regulations won’t restore jobs”. So Trump and his Republican cohorts are once again conning the American public. But this con will have nasty repercussions for all of us, in the form of more pollution, risk of exposure to hazardous chemicals and gases and creating an unhealthy environment for humans and other species.

EPA director Scott Pruitt and Secretary of State and oil baron, Rex Tillerson, announce that the Keystone Pipeline will be constructed and that climate change and oil leaks don't exist despite obvious evidence that they do.

EPA director Scott Pruitt and Secretary of State/Oil Baron, Rex Tillerson, perform their patented gaslighting trick on the citizens of planet Earth by denying the existence of climate change, oil leaks and anything else which may disrupt their agenda of profiting off the environment at any and all cost.

Trump: Modern Day Golden Calf

It’s April Fools Day, so what better way to celebrate it then by poking fun at the biggest fool in America and all the fools who support and enable him.

The more the Trump administration falters, the more his enablers come to the forefront and not only lie their asses to the public, but also to themselves. We’ve mentioned again and again in our posts, it’s absolutely astounding that anybody bought Trump’s shit during the campaign season, but here it is April 2017 and he’s president of the most powerful country on Earth. This isn’t an elaborate April Fools Day prank; this is, extremely unfortunately,…REALITY.

But the biggest joke is on the christians who voted for this selfish, greedy, egotistical, materialistic bigoted megalomaniac, who isn’t like Jesus at all. As a matter of fact, he’s the polar opposite. How can christians justify and enable this man, who claims to be for the common person, but yet pursues policies which will leave them impoverished, sick and broken while making his rich, plutocrat brethren even richer? Like we said a couple posts ago, if you make under 100k a year and you vote Republican, you are voting against your own self interests and you are a sucker and a fool. Or to put it in biblical terms, you are worshiping a modern day golden calf and that calf’s name is Donald Trump.

Donald Trump - Modern Day Golden Calf

The biblical story of the golden calf has resurrected itself in the form of American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump.